Fox News’ Andy McCarthy Puts Trump Team on Blast Over ‘Unconscionable Security Breach’ and ‘Incredibly Foolish’ Excuses
Andy McCarthy and Pete Hegseth, AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Fox News contributor and conservative legal commentator Andy McCarthy took to The New York Post on Wednesday to blast the Trump administration over the “unconscionable security breach” dominating headlines across the world and the “incredible foolish” excuses it’s trotting out in defense of itself.
“It is undeniable, or at least it should be, that ‘information providing advance warning that the US or its allies are preparing an attack’ is to be classified as ‘top secret,'” began McCarthy. “I don’t see how the Trump administration, or anyone else, could credibly contend that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s texts on an unclassified Signal communications chain did not contain such advance warnings. Indeed, that was Hegseth’s purpose. He was alerting other top national security officials, in the two hours prior to the March 15 attacks, that the operation against the Houthis was on. The secretary elaborated on what the sequence of strikes would be, the times, the weapons that would be used, and the targets.”
After praising the operation itself, McCarthy submitted that “the blunder of discussing the details on a Signal group chat that is not authorized for the communication of national defense information — to say nothing of top secret intelligence — was an unconscionable security breach,” before adding that “Obviously, the unauthorized disclosure of an imminent combat operation could tip off the enemy and place American pilots, sailors, and soldiers in exceptionally grave danger. It could lead to mission failure, which itself could have catastrophic ramifications. The fact that a disaster did not occur this time does not excuse the breach. That is why middle-level military and intelligence officers are routinely fired, and many prosecuted — although the government seems to have developed a bipartisan habit of not holding top officials accountable.”
He concluded:
I like Pete Hegseth. That said, it was reckless to disseminate information about imminent combat ops over a non-approved chat app.
As defense secretary, he is expected not just to comply with the rules but to enforce them in his department.
And it seems incredibly foolish to deny what he did, and to insult Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist who was mistakenly included on the chat, when Hegseth knows what he said and Goldberg has the damning texts — some of which he has now published.
Trouble comes to every administration. The question is whether leaders make it better or worse.
Suffice it to say the Trump administration is not making this one better. The result is that the value of a crucial operation against the Houthis, an American enemy, is being lost
McCarthy, who is also a contributing editor at National Review, is just one of a number of conservative media figures who have been critical of both the underlying mistakes made by the administration and the excuses it has offered for them this week.
